Jack Wilshere has revealed he would ring up pundits who criticised him during his playing career - including Paul Scholes and Jamie Redknapp.
The former Arsenal midfielder's confession comes after Cristiano Ronaldo launched a scathing attack on Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville for criticising him in the press. The Manchester United forward made the comments in an interview with Piers Morgan.
Wilshere, who retired aged 30 in July, played in the Premier League and Champions League during the peak of his career. The ex-England international regularly faced criticism from ex-players in the media but had a brave way of addressing their complaints.
"I had a few comments from ex-players on TV, once from Jamie Redknapp and then from Paul Scholes, so I called them," Wilshere told The Sun.
"With Jamie it was when I’d come back from injury, I said, 'I think you out of everyone should understand, you went through it too'. He was very respectful and said he hadn’t really thought about it like that. When Paul Scholes had a go at me he was really good when I contacted him, he ended up helping me."
Wilshere struggled with injuries throughout his career, which limited him to 288 club games and 34 senior caps for England. That being said, he still won two FA Cups with Arsenal and represented his country at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and Euro 2016 in France.
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He added: "You go in the dressing room after a game, players are straight on their phones going through Twitter. You can get 2,000 good comments and there can be one negative one, especially if it’s detailed, that can really get into your head. It screws your mind."
It's not unusual for a player to respond to their critics in public, although the footballing world was still left in shock by Ronaldo's interview and his comments towards Rooney. He made disparaging remarks about his career and looks before calling him a "rat".
Ronaldo made the shocking comments when Morgan asked him if he had more millions of pounds in the bank or followers on Instagram. He has more than 497 million followers on the platform. "That's a good question, probably similar," laughed Ronaldo.
Morgan then said: "I'm trying to work out how Wayne Rooney could hate you even more." Ronaldo replied: "Not only him, imagine the rest of the rats - they are going to criticise me too. But it is good to still be the No.1 [followed individual on Instagram]."
Ronaldo went on to say: “Probably [Rooney is jealous of me]. Probably - because he finished his career in his 30s [aged 35 in January 2021]. I'm still playing at a high level. I'm not going to say that I'm looking better than him, which is true."
When asked for his reaction, Rooney said: "Age comes to all of us, and Cristiano is obviously feeling that and he's finding it hard to deal with that... Bit strange, some of the comments are strange in there but I'm sure Manchester United will deal with it."
